cascade | kotlc

24. Rewind: The Second Train

- J. R.

The golden light is everywhere and nowhere at once. June couldn't open her eyes under the magnificence of the bright yellow aura that blotted out the sun.

Faye, Faye, c'mon, Faye, I'm coming back for you!

It was that thought that dumped her unceremoniously onto the Italian streets, with the century-old stone tiles eroded by the climate and the hot wind blowing past her ears.

She had apparently landed atop a motorcycle and knocked it over. The owner had left his or her keys attached in the engine, which was nice. She could easily hijack a motorcycle.

"Faye?" she called, hoping the girl could hear her, but there was nothing to the eerily empty landscape except for the warm tones and the stoney beaches.

Where was she? She didn't recognize any of this. She wasn't at the intersection, or around any of the streets they'd driven past. The only landmark she noticed were the parallel tracks running down the dirt road, but there were no protective arms or fallen streetlights or walls of flame.

This wasn't where she had left Faye behind. This was probably in Italy, but nowhere near where she was fighting...

She sank to her knees.

"No, Faye," she begged to the arid air. "Faye! You have to be here, right, somewhere... Faye! I came back for you, Faye..."

No response, of course, and the wind was so hot. It was searing her lungs, rasping at her throat with flaming spice, parching her tissue with its high-powered breeze. She was sweating.

A streak of sweat blurred her vision. Why was she crying so much these days? Sometimes she would find herself with tearstains, even when she didn't realize she was crying...

She hated being weak, god, it must've been the worst feeling in the world. To know that she was there, but useless, while her friend was suffering and probably dying in new and creative manners.

Soft chuckling, from behind her.

"Vespera," she said unenthusiastically, without even having to turn.

"My, my. You don't seem surprised to see me."

She turned, letting out a dejected sigh. "How is it you are always here when nobody wants to see you? Can you just, like, go hide in your hideout and scheme your master scheme until either we lose or you lose?"

"Always so stubborn." Vespera studied her nails. "I know why you are here, after all. None of your movements can escape my watcher's eye."

June resisted the urge to both roll her eyes annoyedly and beg Vespera to tell her where Faye was. "So why am I here now?"

"To save your friend. And I can tell you, your friend will not survive."

"She's Faye. She'll get through anything," June said, but her voice had already turned weak as she faltered.

"Really? Then do you know where she is?"

June almost tripped over her feet. "Where did you take her?"

"Me? Nowhere. She has brought death unto herself, with her petty arrogance and ridiculous tendency to retort everything I say." She sighed, spreading her hands. "Humanity and elvinity are not so different. It is a shame."

"You bitch," June wheezed, holding her forehead as fear and terror ran through her. "What happened to her?"

"Nothing she will survive."

"That doesn't help, goddamnit!" she screamed, and the air turned hotter by tenfold, as scorching as the Sahara desert. The sun baked her like she was in a three hundred fifty degree oven, and her face was overrun with perspiration.